THE International Food and Biotech Investment Conference continued yesterday at the Indera Samudra Hall of The Empire Hotel & Country Club with presentations from a number of international speakers.

Dr Mohamed Issa delivers his presentation. – AZROL AZMI

One of the speakers, Dr Mohamed Issa, Chief Executive Officer of Noor Pharmaceuticals, delivered his presentation entitled ‘Halal Certified Pharmaceutical Products – The New Frontier after Food?’, which focussed on how to become a successful Halal certified pharmaceutical company.

He explained a simplification of the complex Halal pharmaceuticals processes to give the audience a more optimistic view of the business.

The first process is based on established products and prevention care, which needs sourcing from a company with access to the global market in order to get the raw materials needed to make the products.

The production process is next, starting only after acquiring the proper facilities, equipment, expertise, regulations and certification. The finished product will then need to pass a safety and efficacy test as well as the regulations, requirements and documentation before distributio

Dr Mohamed Issa later explained these products will need a commercialisation infrastructure in order to be successful in bridging the product to its consumers.

The most complex part of the pharmaceutical process, he explained, is the innovative side of the business in which a company will have to discover a product and have legal guidelines to protect the intellectual property of the product.

The product will then go through small scale production and be tested for stability and be certified. From there the product will go through clinical development, which is seen as the most difficult stage of the process with pre-clinical work to test molecules, ingredients and formulations in three different phases, before finally going through regulatory submission, which requires local and global regulatory expertise in order for the product to be successful worldwide.

The CEO also pointed out the five keys to becoming a successful pharmaceutical company. The first is on the best sourcing and manufacturing capabilities; the second is to find the best regulatory team to understand and navigate regulations; the third is to find the best marketing team to understand deep customer insights; the fourth is for customer insights to lead the core product line; and the fifth is to have a consistent Research and Development (R&D) investment to create new and innovative products.